Trainee nurse burnt in suspected acid attack

A trainee nurse was doused with a corrosive substance believed to be acid in an attack carried out by two men at the corner of New Market and Thomas streets yesterday morning.

Ann-Marie Hutson, 33, of East Ruimveldt, who was burnt on her back, ran to the Georgetown Public Hospital after she was doused with the substance. She is now a patient of the Burn Care Unit, where she is in a stable condition.

The woman believes that a man from whom she recently separated is behind the attack.
Marks caused by splatters of substance thrown on Hutson were visible on her hands and neck when Stabroek News spoke with her yesterday.

Hutson said that around 7:15am, she was heading to work when she came out of a bus at the corner of New Market and Camp streets. She said she began walking towards the Georgetown Hospital and as she approached the corner of New Market and Thomas streets, she saw two men standing at the corner.

She said she thought they were waiting on someone and she passed them. The mother added that as she passed the men, she felt like they had thrown water on her back because the liquid felt cold on her skin. But seconds after, she said her back began to burn and then she became aware that the substance was acid. The men, meanwhile, escaped on a bicycle.
Because of the burning, Hutson said she jumped into a puddle of water nearby to relieve the heat and then ran to the hospital for treatment.

According to Hutson, she suspects that a former partner, from whom she has been separated for two months, is behind the attack. After she had moved on with her life, she said, the man told her that if he could not have her, no one would.

“Everything is linking to him,” she said, while pointing out that the man was having an affair with another woman who was also burnt in an acid attack.

Hutson is the third woman to be a victim of an acid attack in recent months.

In June, Sandy Jackman, 22, was walking along Cummings and Sixth streets, Alberttown, when a man on a bicycle rode up and threw the substance on her. Her face was disfigured and she sustained burns to her chest as a result.

Also in June, 54-year-old Mala Persaud, of Station Street, Kitty, was doused with acid in an attack she believed was retaliation for speaking out against the constant noise emanating from a bar in the area.

Persaud was moving her car out of the yard when a man came out of a taxi with an umbrella and tea cup in his hand.
The man went to her shop and asked for cigarettes and she told him she didn’t have any and he then told her to look at something and as she looked in his direction he threw the acid on her and escaped. The woman suffered burns to her face and chest as a result of the attack.